Boomer care Professor of Social Work Anabelle Pelham was quoted in a Nov. 21 Chronicle of Higher Education report on the need to reverse the decade-long decline in the number of gerontology programs. "We have got to do something about this as a discipline," Pelham said. She agrees that accreditation may help counteract the slide, adding that "in fights for tenure-track lines and other resources, gerontology programs sometimes have to go to the back of the line."

Weathering La NiñaAdjunct Professor of Meteorology Jan Null commented on the weather that might be expected during this La Niña winter, in a Nov. 29 San Francisco Chronicle story. "During La Niña years, Southern California is usually drier than usual and the Pacific Northwest is usually wetter than normal," Null said. "There's a tendency for precipitation to be below normal in Northern and Central California, but there are enough years when it's not below normal that there's not a good signature."

The life of Philip K. DickEnglish Lecturer David Gill commented in a Nov. 22 New York Times article on a biography of Philip K. Dick written by his last wife. Of Dick's time living in isolation, Gill said: "He was no longer writing about things that could only take place in the future or after traveling to other worlds. He's talking about the mundane things of the future -- all very local and real and immediate" (in novels such as Martian Time-Slip and Dr. Bloodmoney)... He's writing about the Everyman, midlevel people who are almost powerless. His interest in the pedestrian sent science fiction in brave new directions." Gill wrote the book's introduction.